The first of these "other band" performances was "Roundabout" from Yes. Wetton does an admirable job singing this one - although at about 20 octaves lower than Jon Anderson - but his bass playing was not quite up to par with
Chris Squire's superhuman feat. Wetton plays with a thumb pick most of the time, and that seems to make it more difficult to play that type of bass line. Just to be able to sing and play that song at the same time is a pretty amazing feat in itself though.
ELP's "Fanfare For The Common Man" was up next and Geoff Downes really gets to shine on this one while cutting lose on Keith Emerson's monster keyboard riffs. The best one of the bunch, however, was King Crimson's epic "In The Court Of The Crimson King," but it was a very odd choice considering that Wetton had not even joined the band until about three years after the song came out. It's as if they had chosen "Owner Of a Lonely Heart" for Steve Howe's song.
Strangely enough, the biggest crowd reaction of the night came when they played The Buggles smash hit "Video Killed The Radio Star," which was the first-ever music video played on MTV in the U.S. Wetton sings the processed vocal parts at the beginning of the song through a bullhorn, and does an admirable job with the rest of the "normal" vocals, getting some help from Downes on the choruses.
Long-time Asia fans will be pleased to see the encore set begin with "Ride Easy," a song that did not appear on the first Asia album, but was a b-side of the "Heat Of The Moment" single. This was a beautiful performance featuring Wetton on acoustic guitar, Downes on piano, Palmer gently tapping a single conga drum, and Howe adding some tasty simulated acoustic leads on electric guitar. A fine lead in to the impressive show closer, "Heat Of The Moment."
The overall production quality of this DVD was very good, although I had a few issues with the audio mixes, which come in three flavors: DTS 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. My main gripe, especially with the 5.1 recordings, is that the drums were mixed too low, and the keyboards were too overpowering on most of the songs. When you have one of the world's best drummers in the band, you need to be able to hear the guy play.
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